Changing
by Nara1991
Summary: Ace/Seven. "Because I'm a silly old man, who has seen and done too many terrible things. I don't deserve the best years of your life, Ace.". Ace just has to trust The Doctor on this one.


Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. All rights are reserved to the BBC. This is merely fun.

A/N: This story does not have a beta reader. It follows an interpretation of events had Ace gone to train at the Prydorian Academy on Gallifrey. This fic is VERY Ace-centric/Ace-heavy.

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><p><strong>The Doctor:<strong> Where to now, Ace?

**Ace:** Home.

**The Doctor:** Home?

**Ace:** The TARDIS!

**The Doctor:** Yes, the TARDIS.

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><p><strong><span>Part I <span>**

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><p>She stood in the long purple grass her fine hair sweeping about her face, caught in a wind that didn't make any sense. Hot and cold, cool and parched at the same time. An oddity, rather like the Doctor himself who was half concealed behind the door to the TARDIS - seemingly rummaging around for <em>something.<em>

All Ace could do was watch between a crack in the door while messing absent-mindedly with the patches on her jacket sleeve, it seemed she was always (whether she knew it or not) waiting for the Doctor to dictate the next course of action in her life. She sighed loudly.

Ace already hated this place, this planet called Gallifrey. It smelled strange, it _looked_ strange and above all it felt strange- truly encompassing the word 'alien'. There was something in the air that screamed 'hostility' and 'confinement' which made her want to turn back immediately, to run away… Ace shook her head vigorously. The past effects of Cheetah World were making her a bit 'too sensitive' these days.

When The Doctor eventually stepped out having found the umbrella he was so fond of, he turned to face her, his blue eyes determined and focused, void of any sympathy like she knew they would be. Upon seeing them so indifferent to her silent plight Ace just wanted to crumble and bed down into the soil of the strange foreign earth she was standing on…

Ace didn't cry though.

She was moulded out of something stronger than that, hardy layers, built up through years of psychological trauma. The Doctor had certainly had his fair share where that were concerned, but crying was for children and she certainly wasn't a little girl.

She fought the tears back instead because that was Ace, a fighter to the end.

"Have you got all your things, Ace? All your knick knacks, trrrrinkets, and fripperrrrry? "

"Yes Professor. " She replied, kicking the ground moodily.

A small smile softened the Doctor's business like face and he swung his umbrella in jovial fashion, a walking question mark. Ace hitched her packed bag further up her shoulder.

The Doctor took in a large breath of air as he stepped onto the queer foliage, the switch in his mood all too natural. "Ahhhh Gallifray. The violet plains of the North! I spent many a fine day of my youth here, running away from…. Well, never mind! You know, this is rather embarrassing but I seem to have landed us a tad off course." He clicked his tongue in mock annoyance, scanning his surroundings with beady eyes." I think my coordinates are out of date, and no wonder! It's been a while since I was last here. Not to worry! Not to worry!" He said in mindless ignorance (or perhaps not) tugging at her elbow. "One can always take the scenic rrroute!"

Ace winced. He really had no idea how much THAT hurt, when he'd first said words to that effect, it had been a lingering question and a promise of wondrous things to come . Now he wasn't asking, he was telling; and it carried all the luxuries of a prison sentence.

She had realised all too late that he had manipulated her into this; everything she had done had been The Doctor pulling the strings, slowly connecting the dots. How ironic that her eyes stung, wanting to bleed at being parted from a man,… no...a time lord, who was cruel, calculating and hundreds of years older than her. Who continued to treat her like nothing more than a piece on his chess board.

_How pathetic I am. _

After everything she had still stayed by his side. Was it because he has begged her to? Simply because she wanted to? Or was it because she didn't have anyone else? Or perhaps because she craved the excitement, the newness of each day, she lived for it… when she really thought about it she _had _nothing else back home on Earth. No friends, no loving family, no prospects …she had nothing, the TARDIS was her only home. It was the one place she could say she _truly _belonged. Where nothing was routine and every tomorrow brought a promise of adventure.

To be parted from him though, that would be hardest thing in all this, even though she hated to admit it. The Doctor, _her_ Doctor… her Professor…

She watched him happily tap tree, root and rock as he walked and the hat on his head bobbed along neatly in agreement. He was playing a rhythm only he himself could hear. Ace found herself grinning at the sight and then remembered…she scowled at the back of his head once more.

To the outside world he appeared a good natured, bumbling idiot. There was more to him than met the eye though. She knew all too well that he was content to play the fool in order that his foes underestimate him, he'd never use direct physical force to implement his actions either, he didn't _need_ to. It was one of the many things she was inexplicably drawn to him for. In such contrast to her own forward approach to most situations, it was this…. Darkness, she loved in him. The fire she saw in those childish blue eyes, smouldering and hinting at something much deeper, much darker…

And where did Ace stand in the Doctor's continuous, turning circle of events? Ever the sticky fingered child with a chip on her shoulder, a hardened stubborn girl. You couldn't have the Doctor without Ace, would that that were true because he was willing to leave her here in this dump. Hadn't she always had his back? Were they not…the perfect team?

They had both been walking and The Doctor talking, pointing at useless things for quite some time now. Well, they could have been useless or they could have been extremely informative. Ace didn't really know or care, every step they took was a second closer to confinement…

"Why Professor?"

He stopped dead through his ramblings just a few short paces in front, turning dramatically on one foot. His brow furrowed, showcasing his frown lines, and perhaps for the first time in his life (or not) The Doctor was unsure of what to say, or was attempting to measure what was about to come out of his mouth. He was such a shrewd tactician.

"Why?" She tested the waters again, meeting his eye and feeling the break in her unspoken words as she did.

The Doctor sighed heavily. "We've been over this many times now my dear Ace. Because it is what you _must_ do. It's what's best for you! One should think that it is an excellent opportunity, and likewise-"

"But…I want to stay!" Ace protested.

"Well you can't!"

There it was. That snappish, childish anger. Ace knew deep down there was more to this. Her senses were on fire now.

"You haven't answered my question…Why?"

"I have answered it many more times than is necessary. If your primitive, human brain ca-"

"You're doing it again, Professor!"

"Doing what?!"

"Keeping secrets!"

"I'm doing no such th- "

"Don't lie to me! Who are you?!"

Without thinking about it, Ace ran. Not away from impending doom but towards The Doctor, throwing her arms around him without restraint. As she sipped her arms about his waist she was aware that the question she had asked once before was not going to get answered.

It wasn't a friendly hug, a hug of reassure or of relief that she was safe (one's she had experienced before) it was desperate, it was needy and never before had the 'emotional cripple' done such a thing. She buried her face deep into the silken scarf, her nails digging into the linen at the back of his jacket, the wool of the jumper scratching her swollen cheek.

The Doctor placed a reassuring hand at the small of Ace's back.

"Now Ace, crying is not like you."

"I'm not crying." She replied stubbornly.

A hiccup managed to escape and betray her, The Doctor chuckled.

"It's either that or hit you!"

She rested her head lightly against his chest and exhaled his scent… _TARDIS engine Oil, Peppermint, Spice, the vanilla of old book pages, the freshly polished brass on a well-played Sax_… everything she loved, everything she would miss...

"I can understand why you might think I have some secret plans with regards to you, but it just isn't true."

Oh, Ace knew that was a lie. She batted at the tears, a torrent rising once more within her, but which she could not release…not yet. She tried weakly, once more.

"I-I, don't want to go."

"And yet…the one thing we do not want to do is so often the very thing we must do."

"But the TARDIS is my home!" She screeched, stepping back from him.

"And so it always shall be."

His gaze locked with hers, fiery and intense. Green upon blue. She began to feel something shudder softly through her, unspoken words as she began to sink into the depths of The Doctor's ocean... 'trust me'... Somehow she knew she'd never say no.

The sky above then swirled with shades of stormy orange.


End file.
